


Willow Tree

by cosmonaughtt



Series: ✨2019 ✨ [4]
Category: Danny Phantom, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Mineta Minoru Doesn't Exist, Bakugou Katsuki Swears A Lot, Chaotic Good Danny Phantom, For both I suppose, Gen, Looks Like Someone's Adopting Two Kids Huh Toshinori, Mineta Minoru is Expelled from U.A. High School, Parental Yagi Toshinori | All Might, Someone Help Danny, Tired Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Well he's also just chaotic in general, ghosts ARE DEAD
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2020-01-02
Packaged: 2020-02-07 05:36:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18614209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmonaughtt/pseuds/cosmonaughtt
Summary: There was a door, under a willow tree.Danny ended up taking the wrong turn in the Ghost Zone, and ended up in a weird world where superpowers are commonplace. Despite it all, he tries to lay low and out of sight, but put in the best hero school in Japan, that's going to get a little tricky. The line between a hero and villain is blurred, and in Danny's case, he might have to learn to let a few secrets go, or let a world fall to ruin.





	1. salix babylonica

There was a door, under a willow tree.

Danny knew how fluid and ever-changing the Ghost Zone was. The ectoplasm making the atmospheric void that  _was_ the zone was constantly swirling, changing,  a mystery to both humans and ghosts alike-- and the floating islands moved with the rhythm of an unknown song. 

He shouldn't be in the Ghost Zone, right now. He'd promised Jazz that it'd be a quick trip in, out. He said he left something in the Ghost Zone at Clockwork's tower, but that was a little, white lie. There was something  _calling_ to him in the undead dimension, and he knew he couldn't explain it to Jazz. Jazz would jump to conclusions-- that Danny was finally losing himself to his ghost half, like (she theorized) Vlad. But Vlad was just a fruitloop-- no, this was something different.

It led him to the willow tree.

A tree in the Ghost Zone is a rare sight. They don't grow on small islands, they don't float aimlessly through the Zone, they grow on the larger islands, large like Skulker's lair, or Dora's kingdom. But those trees were dead, usually, dead beyond  _his_ years. Danny had never seen a living tree in the Ghost Zone.

Or was it living? He didn't know. The leaves definitely looked alive, hanging off the island and blowing in a nonexistent wind. They were green, but not the toxic green void around them, a bright, lively green. He floated carefully to the tree, feeling the leaves in his hand. They bent, never snapping.

And then there was the door. The door was large, a dark color, either green or brown or black, he couldn't tell. Was it made of willow wood? Could doors even be  _made_ with willow trees? Danny didn't pay much to Sam's botany lessons, though wouldn't that deal more with carpentry?

"Stop it, Fenton." He told himself, aloud. He wasn't a stranger to voicing his thoughts aloud, he wouldn't be surprised if a passing ghost heard him mumbling to himself. Of course, he wasn't a villain, so he never needed to keep his thoughts or monologues to himself. That's how being a hero worked, right? That's what Danny thought, at least.

Despite his best judgment, he landed on the small island. It was big enough to hold the willow tree and the door, but not much else, and he noticed a piece of the land drop off and fall into the abyss. 

Danny knocked on the door, ignoring the number-one rule of traversing the Ghost Zone.

_Do not knock on random doors._

He knew this door was calling to him-- no, pulling at him. There was either an evil ghost in the door who wanted to kill him all the way, or there was a good ghost behind the door, wanting to tell him something, teach him something. Danny's core was still unstable, despite being a ghost for a year, so he's heard from Vlad's taunts. Maybe this is something good?

Either way, the door swung wide open. Behind the door was darkness, a darkness that could only be described as "advanced darkness". He took a tentative step forward, leaning his hand on the doorframe. "Hello?" His voice sounded off in the lair of whatever ghost called this place home, only to bounce back at him. "Anyone home?" Danny took another step into the darkness. He was in the room now, the only thing lighting up anything around him was the vibrant glow from the Ghost Zone behind him. He let his hand slide down from the doorframe and to the side.

This was stupid. This was pointless. "Okay, wow, leaving me in the dark. I guess this is how ghosts really  _ghost_ ya," He commented, turning on his heel. It was stupid-- he might as well just leave, go home, enjoy a warm dinner of microwave chicken nuggets and call it a night. There'd been no ghost attacks that day, and maybe he could finish his homework and  _get sleep_ , and above all, it was a Thursday, _and_ a three-day weekend. Which was even better. 

Just as he turned, the door behind him slammed shut, leaving him in the dark lair. The air turned cold-- a different kind of cold from the Ghost Zone, which was cold but also warm with the ectoplasm surrounding you, the usual entropy that ectoplasm usually existed in. This was a dry cold, a wind that blew through the room he was trapped in. Danny leaned forward, feeling for the doorknob. He found it, but it wouldn't twist, or open.

Something was behind him, _on him_ \-- he felt like the protagonist of a horror movie, trying to outrun a monster, to be trapped by a door. It raked cold claws on his back, and he felt pain but  didn't feel it at the same time. 

And he 

began

to

f 

    a

                    l

                                       l.

 

* * *

His entire body felt like it was underwater, but he was breathing-- ash e came to, he became aware of something hard and cold wrapped around his face. It breathed oxygen into his lungs,  cold like the room he'd last been in. Danny's body felt heavy and tired, but his mind was slowly becoming cognizant of the world around him, a bright white.

 _If I'm in a hospital, I'm going to scream,_ was his first thought. Voices drifted in from the white surroundings, and though he couldn't see anything, he could make out human-shaped blobs around him, and people speaking. The language sounded weird and garbled, as much as the native ghost language sounded to humans perhaps, but his mind slowly began to decode it. 

_"Never---  so many scars, so young..."_

_"What kind of villain would torture a_ child _like this?"_

 _You'd be surprised,_ Danny thought to himself, cynically. The jibe made him laugh, mentally, and then he coughed, twice.

_"Oh! Is he coming to?"_

_"--Slowly. After how much I used my quirk on him, it'll be a while. What happened, again?"_

_"Fell from the sky. No villains-- database-- have flight, or anything like that."_ There were three voices, now? Three blobs, three voices, Danny supposed, it made sense. The world was becoming less of a blur, and he could recognize shapes. But what was this talk about quirks, villains, database? Superpowers? Did the weird lair put him into some comatose dream where everyone had ghost powers? Or _superpowers_?

His eyes fluttered-- one of the blobs noticed, a blob that was slowly forming into a small, elderly woman with her hair tied tightly above her head in a bun.  _"Easy there, don't work y_ ourself too hard."

Whatever language barrier had been put in place was broken, because that sounded perfectly clear. A little loud, but perfectly clear. He winced at the sound, but now he was able to see more details of the people surrounding him. There was the old woman, probably some kind of nurse, a tall, skeletal man with blond hair (who looked like he needed to be in the place Danny was in, to be honest), and a small...rat. Bear? Mouse? Thing. This really was a weird coma dream, wasn't it? Or was it a different--

Pain shook his body for the first time that he stirred. Danny was no stranger to pain, but his bones ached, and his molecules felt like they'd been rearranged again. But he felt his heartbeat, and he was still breathing, so he was in his human form. The pain wasn't segregated to one spot. It was all over his body, deep in his muscles. Almost like he'd fallen at a great height. Is that what they were talking about?

"Well, is he awake?" The skeleton-man asked, looking at the elderly lady with concern.

"He's getting there." The woman said, and Danny felt the mask around his face be untied and removed. "His pulse hasn't gone up much, though..."

Low pulse? Was he hooked up to a machine? Was he in a hospital? They didn't-- they didn't take blood samples, did they? It'd been almost a year since Danny had been in the hospital. First was the accident, the other time was with Spectra infecting all of his school, but that was an abandoned hospital and didn't count. There was no distinct smell of disinfectant, no sterile smell of needles, nothing that gave off the hospital feeling... The bad memories of being in the hospital for three weeks after being electrocuted enough to kill him came back out and he shuddered. No, this wasn't a hospital, he could tell.

"There you are..." The elderly lady said. She wore a weird pair of goggles, Danny noticed. "Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"

 _That's a weird question_ , Danny thought. He hadn't gone blind, he could see perfectly well. "...Three?" His voice croaked out. The language, just like he'd heard, felt familiar but also not at the same time. It wasn't like his first time speaking in Ghost, it was something entirely new. Like, speaking Spanish but not knowing Spanish.

"Good, good..." The lady smiled. "Are you alright to answer a few questions, or do you want to rest a little more?" 

Danny shifted in his bed-- the numbness of his legs had gotten to be too much to bear, and he finally felt his healing kick in. Something else had been blocking it, it seemed. "Yeah, I think I can."

"Alright, just tell me if you can't." The lady turned to the two other people in the room-- mainly, the small rat-mouse-bear thing. 

"Hello there!" The rat-mouse-bear thing said. "I hope you're feeling better, I heard you took quite the fall. Do you remember anything about it?" 

Danny thought, for a moment. There was the door in the Ghost Zone, there was the  _thing_ on him, and then there was...  Nothing, until waking up in this bed.  "N-No." He shook his head. "I fell?"

The creature nodded. "Yes, you fell right from the sky, into the middle of one of our training gyms here!  If it weren't for one of our staff members, you'd be a pancake right now."

This creature was too chipper about talking about Danny's demise. Then again, he met ghosts who wanted to be the cause of his demise-- and humans, too, for the matter-- so he wasn't phased much by it. Ha, phased. Ghost pun. "Oh."

"Oh, pardon me. My name is Nezu, I am the principal of this fine establishment. I'm sure you recognize Recovery Girl, and this is a colleague, Toshinori Yagi. What is your name?"

Recovery Girl? Danny didn't recognize the elderly lady who sat pleasantly next to his bed. But, oh, his name. "Danny." It probably wasn't wise to give out his last name wherever he was. Plus if this really was a coma-dream from a ghost monster then it would definitely not be the right idea. Then again, most ghosts knew that Phantom was a halfa, so... 

"Danny...?"

"Danny." He repeated, a bit harsher. 

The creature took the hint. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Danny. Do you have any parents that we can contact, or someone we can get in touch with that will help you get home?"

Danny thought for a moment. This place, where he'd woken up, was weird-- there was a talking  _thing_ that was talking to him, apparently, superheroes and supervillains, if he heard correctly, and whatever the hell "quirks" were. If this wasn't a coma-dream (and he pinched himself twice already, making sure it wasn't one of Nocturne's doing), this wasn't his world. He knew the Ghost Zone could lead to different times, could it lead to different dimensions, too? What was with the willow tree?

"No, I don't think so."

"You are safe with us, young Danny." The other man-- Toshinori, was it?-- said, his voice was much deeper than his skeletal appearance showed. "If there is something wrong, or your situation is not safe, you can say so, safely."  His voice was the same one, Danny recognized at that moment, who was talking about his scars. He felt his skin crawl at the thought, and on instinct, covered his right hand.

"I... No, there's no one."

The three others (Danny couldn't say Nezu, the rat-bear-mouse-whatever thing was a person, but he definitely had intelligence way beyond humanity) gave each other a sympathetic glance. Nezu cleared his throat. "Alright. Do you have a last name that we could use, to find someone for you?"

Danny shook his head. Fenton was staying a  _secret_ , for now.  

Nezu wrote down a note on the piece of paper he was scribbling on. "And may I ask, what is your quirk?"

Quirk-- that word again. He'd heard it thrown around multiple times. Danny nervously laughed, "What's that?"

The room immediately became silent-- Danny felt the worried eyes of all three of the other people in the room looking at him. Even Nezu, who was the least person-like, had a twinge of worry across his face. Toshinori and Recovery Girl took a few steps back, whispering to themselves, while Nezu cleared his throat.

"A 'quirk' is what we call a superpower-- though, that's common knowledge for everyone, isn't  it?" He laughed.

No, it wasn't. As Nezu spoke, Danny listened in on the other two, who had withdrawn for a moment.

_"Were there any signs of a concussion?"_

_"No, not that I know of. If it's amnesia, then, that's a different and more worrisome story."_

_Okay, Danny, time to play their game._ "Oh, a quirk!" He laughed, nervously, hoping that his acting was coming across well. The two  _humans_ froze when they heard his laugh, both taking a sigh of relief. Nezu wrote more stuff down on his notepad. "I thought you said, like, a quark, and I was confused."  _Stop laughing. You're going to give yourself away,_ he thought, coming to a stop of his nervous laughter. What could he tell them? He couldn't lie and say he didn't have one, can people without quirks, can 'quirk-less' people exist? "I can, um..."  _Basics._ He turned his forearm invisible, waving it around. "I can turn invisible... And intangible. Yeah."

"What do you call this quirk?"

 _Shoot, a name? Uh, think, think..._ "Ghost."

_That's the worst name you could think of._

"That ends my bout of questions, for now!" Nezu announced. "Of course, we will be having police and legal authorities come in and question you, as well, but that will be in a little while, still."

"Yes. For now, I think you should rest a bit!" Recovery Girl interjected. 

Danny nodded, probably a bit too enthusiastic. He had a part to play, but he didn't need to overplay it, right? He already was, at that point. Maybe he shouldn't have played into it. He could've told them the truth-- the whole truth, that he was half-ghost, that he definitely wasn't from around here, his low heart-beat was definitely due to being mostly but not completely dead, but he didn't. Old habits die hard, and the habit of keeping secrets like your life depends on it dies the hardest. Because, even though he'd seen a reality where his family, his parents accepted his half-ghost status before, he saw it only briefly, distracted by traveling across the country to save them. And he undid all of it, because  _he_ wasn't ready. 

The other two were ushered out of the room, and Recovery Girl turned around to him, a kind smile on her face. "My office is right over here, if you need me. My quirk has probably taken a lot out of you, so rest now."

Quirk? Did she use her quirk on him? Danny didn't consent to that! But if it had been what kept him alive (to his degree, at least), that would be fine. He nodded, though he didn't feel particularly exhausted physically, a nap never hurt. If this was a strange fever-dream, maybe he'd wake back up in the room by the willow tree, and find out this was a strange concoction in his head. One he definitely should profit off of, if it  _is_ a dream, though his half-life could be considered a blockbuster, too.

Despite his racing thoughts, Danny closed his eyes and allowed sleep to overcome him. 

 


	2. hyacinthus orientalis

This wasn't a strange concoction in his head. 

It's a reality. But also this world was certainly  _strange_. And it was only about a day he was stuck here.

He'd overheard conversations, pretending to sleep and rest when he didn't need it, between Recovery Girl and the mouse-bear-rat-thing Nezu, and the man Toshinori. He'd overheard conversations, and they spoke of strange things, Yet he listened in. Most of them were what to do with him. What the best way to deal with him would be, like he was some sort of discarded toy.

He'd shown up in no databases, apparently. The world kept records of people and their "quirks", and there was no Danny, no "Daniel", or no quirk known as  _Ghost_ related to any Danny. Which made him feel better because if there was anything Danny remembered about universes, is that they can sometimes have separate forms of  _yourself_. Or that's what movies taught him, at least, and that one trip to Salem with the Infi-map. Or was that back-in-time and one of his ancestors? He didn't know. 

It was also a weird school and not a hospital. What kind of school needs a  _hospital_ in their building? If any school needed it, Danny decided, it was Casper High. So many ghost attacks in one day can lead to a lot of damage that Danny tried his best to not stop, but it wasn't always in his favor. He knew there were some times were people were sent to the hospital, and Danny couldn't help it, it was an occupational hazard. He always made sure to visit those people, even though being in the hospital made him nervous and think about the accident. 

And then, around the afternoon of the second day, another kid came in. He was Danny's age, just a bit shorter than him (or, Danny assumed, he was sitting in the bed, playing one of those puzzle games with bright colorful graphics and obnoxious music on a spare tablet), and had a head of curly, green hair. Danny was used to wild hair colors, he had his own white hair at points, and Sam had gone through phases of dying bright streaks in her hair. 

But green hair?

Danny was starting to think he'd fallen into an  _anime_  or something. But that was ridiculous. 

The boy looked nervous-- there was a solemn expression to his face, like he'd witnessed something  _bad_ , but not quite life-threatening, too-- and he held onto his hand delicately, like a sling. One of his fingers was swollen, twisted, and purple. 

"Ah, Midoriya. Aizawa said that you'd be coming this way after class." Recovery Girl slid from her chair and walked over to one of the closets. "Just sit on the other bed, sonny, I'll be with you for a moment."

The kid, Midoriya, nodded. And then he looked at Danny-wide eyed with curiosity and confusion.

 _Right. This is a school. He must be a student._ Danny couldn't help but wonder what kind of school had kids breaking their fingers in their lessons, some sort of superhero-school bullshit that Danny didn't quite pay attention to when he was listening to other conversations. 

"Oh. Hello." The boy said, taking a seat on the second bed. The room wasn't too big, only big enough to fit three beds on the one wall, and Danny was sitting in the one furthest from the door. Away from the other students-- but why hadn't any others come in sooner? If this superhero school was as wild as it sounded, shouldn't more kids be in here? "Who are you?"

"Danny." Talking to the random kid  _wouldn't hurt_ , would it? He was never told to not talk to anyone. He didn't reach out his hand, holding the tablet tightly. He definitely didn't fit into this universe, in more ways than one.

"Nice to meet you, Danny. I'm Midoriya Izuku. What class are you in?" Despite the anxious feeling that wafted off of him, Midoriya wasn't too shy at all. In fact, his voice was pleasant, if a bit awkward and high. 

"I'm not, uh..." He wasn't sure  _what_ he could say. He knew that the talk he had with Nezu was supposed to be confidential, but the adults hadn't told him much more. At the rate he was getting information, Danny was about to just transform into Phantom and fly out of here and go on his own.

He'd read up on the world on the tablet, though. Superheroes everywhere, no doubt with abilities that could track him. He'd lay low, go with what the people around him did, and figure out his way home when no one was looking.

"Ah! Here." Recovery Girl interrupted, taking Midoriya's hand and giving it a large kiss. Is  _that_ how her quirk worked? Danny felt himself shudder, watching as she wrapped the boy's finger in a splint with speed that shouldn't be possible for her age. She pulled a lollipop out of her pocket, smiling. "There you go, all patched up. Come to me tomorrow morning, and I'll remove the splint. If you take a shower, just remember to wrap it in plastic."

"Thank you, Recovery Girl." He spoke slower this time, looking a bit more fatigued. 

"Also, Midoriya? Would you do me a favor?" Recovery Girl glanced over at Danny. "Could you take Danny here to Nezu's office for me?"

 _Office? You mean I can get out of this stupid bed?_ He'd been permitted to get up and stretch if his legs got tired, but because today was some big-important class day--

No, wait. He remembered, now. It was the first day of school today. How'd he forget that in so little hours? Daniel James Fenton, brain cell population: one. Sam joked that he lost all of his remaining brain cells in the portal accident, after all. The joke stung, but it seemed to be true.

"Oh, sure. It's the one by the front, right?"

"Yes, it is." Danny had been given, thankfully, a shirt and pants that weren't destroyed like his old ones were, by whatever creature had attacked him behind the willow door. In fact, it was the same uniform that Midoriya appeared to have on, sans the nice shoes, the jacket, and the tie. He looked like a student of this place-- and hey, his old tennis shoes weren't nearly as annoying as the large, red sneakers that Midoriya was wearing, either. That's a good thing.

Was it, like, a cover or something?

"Nezu just wants to meet with you to discuss a few...  _things._ " Recovery Girl commented, giving him a wink as he walked out of the door, following Midoriya closely. 

Danny nodded. Should he thank her, too, for helping and healing him? It messed with his own speedy healing, so maybe not. Either way, by the time he thought about it, he was out of the door and in the actual school.

* * *

 

"So, what class are you in, Danny?" Midoriya asked again, with a little less enthusiasm and slightly droopy eyes. But his finger looked better, even though it was under a lot of bandages and in a splint. 

 _Think, Fenton._ "Uh, I don't know...Yet."

"Oh. Are you a transfer student?"

"...Yes." He didn't know what he was agreeing to. The odds of seeing this Midoriya kid again, after he gets out of UA? Slim to none. So that was good.

"You're coming in pretty late. I mean, today is the first day, but for UA's school, not many students can get accepted on a rolling basis. Or, well, none, I think." Somehow, Midoriya said that in one breath. Danny was amazed by this kid-- even though he was pretty sure they were both the same age. "Do you want to study heroics, or do you want to go into support or business? Or are you in Gen Ed?"

"Uh, I..." Danny faltered over his words. So much for his fake cover--  though, walking through the halls, passing a student every now and then, he was definitely out of place. He must've landed in Japan, in an alternate world, with superpowers-- oh no.

_Oh no._

He  _was_ in an anime, wasn't he? What cruel universe would do this to him? Multiverse? And there's also the fact that he's the white-haired anime boy who's either dead or going to die. He's dead! He's half-dead.

"Heroics." Danny stumbled out, already uncomfortable after the weird silence between them. He cleared his throat, quickly covering, "Sorry, jetlag."

"Jetlag?" Midoriya asked, but stopped immediately. "Oh, we're here."

The door, just like the one he noticed in the hospital-room, the infirmary, was  _huge_. Like, it was twenty feet tall. There wasn't a handle on the door, just a metal plate to push on, which stretched from about a foot off the ground all the way to the near top. 

"Well, I hope to see you again, Danny." Midoriya said, before his eyes caught someone in passing. "Bye!"

Danny waved. Midoriya was certainly  _something._ This entire world was certainly  _something_.

* * *

 

Nezu was waiting for him in his office, just as Danny was told. His desk was unique. It had a strange collection of objects that could've been found in strange trinket shops, antique marts, or just in the trash. It reminded Danny of a hoard of some sorts. The desk was much taller than the principal, but his stool was adjusted to be enough that he sat above it. There was a plush chair pushed next to the desk. The rest of the room was scant of decor, only having a couch with one side ripped to shreds by some claws, a cat-scratcher torn to pieces, and a coffee table with an empty mug on a coaster, a teapot on a shelf, and a large lamp. "Ah, Danny! Please, come in." Nezu greeted, his voice pleasant.

He didn't realize he'd stopped at the door to  _gawk_ at everything. He'd seen lairs weirder before in the Ghost Zone.

"Would it be more comfortable to talk here, or on the couch?"

"Here's fine," Danny said, motioning to the desk. Nezu nodded, motioning for Danny to take a seat. He did, and the plush chair was definitely as soft as it looked. He had to hold himself up to avoid sinking into it. Nezu was a man(?) of unique tastes. 

"You are adamant as ever with having no one we can contact discussing your situation, right?" Nezu asked, but it was more of a rhetorical question.

Danny truly didn't have anyone in this world. He wasn't lying, despite what they might be thinking. He did have a family, his parents, his sister, but he couldn't focus on them , else he'd start to focus on Amity Park again, which sent him into a bit of a spiral of  _what if something happened, what if Dan got out, what if a ghost attacks that's too strong for Sam and Tucker and Jazz and Valerie, what if..._ And, really, in his situation, he couldn't afford to think of anything else but getting home. And how weird this world was.

"No."

"And you do realize that you are in the safest space you could be, yes? This is a school taught by pro-heroes, built by them. If there are any villains or anyone out there who plans to hurt you, harm you, or anyone you care about, you are safe to discuss the details of them here, if you wish."

That's something that Danny thought was nice. The adults in this universe were cognizant of the world around them, at least. They were aware of how easy it was for kids to be manipulated into doing things they didn't want to do. Danny had seen it happen with ghosts like Spectra, who tormented kids to misery to  _feed_ on them. They were more aware of the manipulation that came in the forms of people like Vlad Masters, who was sweet like honey on the outside, but tied you up when you weren't looking and trapped you.

"No, there-there really, really isn't." Not in  _this_ universe, at least. Hopefully, Nezu wasn't a mind-reader and could hear every single one of Danny's thoughts. He knew how to reign it in and keep it to himself, memories of Freakshow and his body being controlled by someone other than him coming to mind, but it felt like traveling through the door in the Ghost Zone under the willow tree had definitely left him frazzled.

Probably what unwilling multidimensional travel did to your psyche. Jazz would have a field day with this.

Nezu nodded. He spun his stool around to the large computer on his desk. It looked like it came from the early 2000s, but it was still alive and working, and had the most updated apps, apparently. "You don't have any records-- this came across as a problem to  _us_  and the police force as well. How can a child turn up in the world without a single paper to his name?" Nezu chuckled, before glancing back at him. "We've created a few interim papers, but a few papers, such as your Quirk registration, need to be signed by yourself."

"O-okay..." Danny said. 

"That being said, U.A. cannot be your permanent home." Nezu turned back to his computer, reaching behind it and grabbing a pile of papers. Maybe not a pile, but with Nezu's height, the papers looked massive. In reality, there were only about ten. "Although we have debated building dorms in more recent years, and I will still push for it, U.A.  is not a place for one to  _live_ , just for one to learn. We've enrolled you in a protection program that will keep your records private to everyone but professional heroes and higher-ups in law enforcement. That's what two of those papers are for-- your "identity"."

Danny shuffled the pages, and found them-- written completely in Japanese kanji. The more he stared at it, though, the more he was able to understand it. The letters appeared to flow off the page and rearrange themselves into English that he could understand.  _Thank Clockwork._ Whether it was truly the ghost of Time's intervention or just a _pro_ of multidimensional travel, Danny didn't know, but he was thankful nonetheless.

"Since you didn't give us a surname name, we provided one for you. Is it satisfactory?" 

 _ **Yuurei, Daniel.**_ He was in Japan, so last names always came first. Danny Yuurei felt awkward and clunky, but he wasn't going to give out  _Fenton_ , or try and make one up for himself. "Yeah, it's fine."

"Great! Feel free to look at the last few pages as I speak," Nezu said, leaning over his desk. "As a part of your 'cover', we've decided that a possible option is enrolling you as a transfer student  to U.A. here."

That's exactly what he told that Midoriya-kid! It would work out, and Danny wouldn't be the liar in the end. And his weird awkwardness in the hall could just be a part of his "jet-lag". 

"However, we cannot just say  _you're in_ , Danny."  Nezu said, grabbing one of the trinkets on his desk. It was a Rubik's cube, but instead of a square, it had, like, eight sides. Tucker tried to solve one of those in middle school and could only solve for one color. "We'd ask that you at least take a modified version of our entrance exam, if you so wish to. If you do not decide to come here, however, there are many host families that work alongside the protection program that would take you in, and you'd attend either a regular school or a homeschool program of your choice."

 _Options, options, options..._ Danny flipped to the last few pages, all applications for the school. His fake-name was printed out, already, along with general descriptions of his body-- 5'5", black hair, blue eyes, caucasian, though his weight was scribbled out-- and his quirk, "Ghost".

God, why did he have to think of a terrible name?

U.A. was going to not be the best place to "lay low". In fact, it was the _worst_ _possible_ _choice_ that Danny could make. What if his powers slipped? What if his secret slipped? But-- hiding in plain sight. He would be around heroes, he would be able to overhear, sneak around, find a way home on his own. 

"Okay, I'll try your entrance exam. When is it?"

"Recovery Girl has given you an all-clear, if you left the infirmary on your own." Nezu said. "We could start now, though most of the students and teachers have left for the day. So, is tomorrow  good for you?" 

"I, uh-- sure?"

"Splendid!" Nezu clapped his hands, or more accurately, his paws. "I'll let the teachers know, and we will arrange a test for you tomorrow."

A  _test_? Oh, no, this  _was_ the worst outcome, his links to the higher-ups in society be damned. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ASDFJKL; HI thank you so much for all the beautiful comments I've been getting!! I'm trying to respond to them as I get the emails for them and see them, but I know I've missed some. Just know that I've probably read every single one and I love your comments and I hope this fanfic goes just as well as you hope! (Yes, I'm writing this on the edge of my seat without a beta. Yes, this is how I always write. No, I don't recommend doing this.) 
> 
> Also, I realized after finishing last chapter that the reason Esperanto is used in Danny Phantom is because it's a literal dead language no one speaks anymore. But you _can_ learn it on Duolingo, apparently.
> 
> Apologies for the butchered Japanese translation. I used google translate to get the last name for Danny-- Daniel Yuurei. Yurei is the word for ghost. I'm not sorry.


	3. rosmarinus officinalis

Danny was taken to a nearby hotel for the night. He was told that there would be police staying in the rooms on either side of him, just for his protection, and he could hear, from both sides of the thin walls, the officers talking in hushed voices. Rookies, no doubt, paired with older officers, getting the experience they needed. It'd be his home for the next three days, as U.A. would be testing him, quickly processing his results, and finding him a place to stay, last-minute. 

But there was a  _shower._ Hot water, fresh soap. His hair had started to get a bit greasy and his skin felt gross by the end of day-two stuck at the school (which he could see from the small hotel window, the giant, glass building that shone, even in the dark. There was  _food_ , gifted by the police officers who had to make sure no one tried to kidnap him, donuts and cookies and mochi, sweets that Danny hadn't had in two days. Or three days. Upon being given the tablet from the school, as an emergency contact, Danny realized something.

He was missing a day.

He'd fallen in, late on Saturday. Woke up on Sunday. That first day was Monday. When he'd found the willow tree, it was Thursday. Where was Friday There was an entire day, in his memory, completely blacked out. Did something happen with the willow tree, that took up all of Friday? What happened to make him forget a whole day?

That wasn't his biggest problem. Like an idiot, Danny had decided to take a test. Two tests, apparently, by the short summary Nezu gave him as he finished filling out the paperwork he'd been given that afternoon. One of them was a physical exam, that Nezu didn't tell him much about, the other one was a written test. And since he'd signed up for heroics, Danny would be tested on heroic strategies, and heroes, and  _quirks._  

He took a deep breath, sitting at the small desk the hotel room provided, the tablet propped up against the wall. Their Google search engine-- called Troogle-- was open to pages on the top ten heroes, tabs open on each one.  _All Might. Endeavor. Hawks. Best Jeanist._ Some of these "quirks"-- Danny was going to have to get used to thinking about these powers as quirks, and not weird ghost powers-- were outrageous. Hawks was literally a bird. He had wings-- he could control the feathers, too? Best Jeanist was a man who wore 100% denim. Jacket, jants, and probably even jhoes, too. 

And then there was Endeavor. Danny found himself on some sort of hero forum, that discussed the morality of the number-two hero Endeavor. He was a tall man with fire powers that would make Vlad's core  _jealous_ , and he went extra enough to make himself a fire-beard and all. Also, there were many allegations of abuse in his agency, a few rumors of some quirk-marriage, uncalled for violence against villains, and even once, attacking an unarmed civilian. Something about this man stunk of fruit-loops.

"Oh my god, why did I decide to do this?" He asked himself. He sat, for a few minutes, in silence, before laughing. "I'm talking to myself. I've gone insane." It was only 8:00, and he was determined to stay up until at least midnight to learn what he needed to know. Sure, Danny didn't do well in his classes. He had gone from a B-average to a C-average in the last few months, as ghost hunting and fighting took up his life. He constantly forgot homework assignments and projects, but when it came to tests, Danny did well. Surprisingly well. It was a weird quirk of his. 

Danny took another donut. His body constantly needed sugar, energy, or else he'd crash. His human body needed so much food, he found out, after wondering how long he could survive without food since he was  _dead_. It was quite the opposite of what he expected. He could only last a week. His body might have been considered half-dead, but it needed nutrients and sugar to keep him going, or else his body would crash, and apparently, start pulling in ecto-energy. And it was a slow process, and he didn't feel good, especially when his eyes actually started to glow green. 

He didn't need any of that weirdness around his parents, so in one night, he, Sam, and Tucker ordered about twenty pizzas and watched movies at  Sam's house. Danny ate about fifteen pizzas, still wasn't full, but definitely didn't feel like his body was going to crash.

So another donut was claimed by the bottomless void that was Danny's stomach.  _Back to studying._

* * *

Studying went surprisingly well. It's rare enough when he tries to study, even rarer it seems when Danny retains the information and actually feels like he learned something. It helped that he found a "history of the entire world, I guess", on YouTube (multidimensional classic) by an alternate Bill Wurtz that summarized, well, everything. A few helpful people left comments detailing their favorite historical events, and Danny felt like he was set in history, and whatever humanities questions they threw at him in the test.

This universe still had the same laws of gravity and physics as his own did, so that was a good thing. Hopefully, math and science will be the same here, sans the quirk thing. 

Nezu was waiting for him at the school gates-- Danny had two police officers following close behind on both of his sides. To make sure he doesn't make a run for it, or to make sure that no one can get him?  Either way, having the two officers (one of which had  _horns_. Like, actual  _horns_ ) flanking him. He almost felt like he was in trouble, not the trouble that he'd get detention for, but something... worse. And with the devious  _smirk_ that Danny was getting from the bear-cat-dog-man  _Nezu_ , he definitely felt like he'd signed up for something way over his head.

 _Being close to the heroes will lead me to answers,_ he thought.

Then he looked at Nezu's smile again.

_Or maybe I should go become a hermit in the woods and never interact with society again._

"Good morning, Danny!" His voice was as chipper as the first day he'd met the school's principal. "Are you ready for today's exam?"

Danny nodded. "As I'll ever be." He mumbled, still blinking in the light from the bright sun. It was only nine o'clock, much later than what he woke up for school normally, but earlier than what he would've preferred to wake up.

"Thank you, officers." Nezu turned to the two policemen standing quiet behind Danny. "He is in the capable hands of UA now. The test will end between eleven and noon, depending on how he does." The police officers nodded, and with a "good luck _, kiddo_ " to Danny, both of them departed. Nezu looked at Danny next. "Your written exam will be first, which will take up to two or so hours. After that, you'll have a small, half-hour break to prepare for the physical exam while your written exam is graded-- the physical been modified and changed from our original one in order to accommodate just one person, and it will only take about ten minutes."

Ten minutes? All the hype for this, and it was only  _ten minutes?_ Then again, the accident happened in that same amount of time. Ten minutes-- sneaking down into his parent's lab, putting on the jumpsuit, stepping into the portal... He clenched his left fist tightly, pushing back the sudden memories.

"You will be provided with standard athletic clothes from the school to take the physical test in, unless you need a last minute adjustment for your quirk?"

It took a moment to process it-- Danny still wasn't used to hearing his power called a "quirk". "Oh, uh, no, I'm good." He wondered why the principal asked, but he figured there was no time for questions-- and there really wasn't, because he was led immediately to an empty classroom (the students didn't have class that day, luckily) to start his written exam. The only other person in the room was a scraggly-haired  _burrito_ of a man. 

"Aizawa, this is Yuurei Danny." Yeah, that last name was  _terrible_. Danny wasn't going to complain about it, he'd have a much worse time thinking of a fake name for himself. He'd end up giving something too close to his actual last name, and hey, if he has some kind of double in this world, that'd be bad. "I'm sure you're aware of his situation, yes?"

The burrito man nodded. "I am." The man's eyes were drooped, large bags under his eyes showing stress and loss of sleep. Had Danny not been in a ghost-free world, he knew he would be mirroring that look. Now that Danny glanced at the desk, he noticed it wasn't just papers scattered on his desk. No, it was files, and he recognized his name on top. "...Well?"

"Huh?" Nezu had left the room, Danny had been too in his own head. That's what really got him, sometimes, in ghost fights. He'd be thinking  _too much about something_ , and would notice some sort of debris or attack coming his way, and he'd think  _turn intangible,_ and he wouldn't because he was focused on thinking about it. It was a mess. 

"You can sit down, now." Aizawa instructed, motioning to the only desk in the room with a pile of paper on it. Danny nodded, moving to the seat. "Start whenever, but you have two hours to complete the test. I'd confiscate your phone, but you don't seem to have one, so..."

Danny felt like he was supposed to be  _intimidated_ by this man, this hero (he supposed, he didn't know for sure), but he'd fought things much more intimidating and horrifying than a man who  was completely done with existence. He shrugged it off, picked up the number-two pencil, and opened the packet.

* * *

"So  _this_ is the special transfer student we've got?"

"He shows the potential to be a great hero. I can tell, just by the look in his face!"

"How is this test going to work, Nezu?"

"We've changed this year's test almost completely into a new one. Yuurei will have twenty minutes to knock out enough robots and rack up his points. The same one and two point system will be reused, but there will also be a few scattered robots in the city's debris that will act as "citizens."

"So that's how rescue points will be determined, then?"

"Yes!"

"What about the zero-pointer?"

"May use it, may not use it. We'll just have to see how this trial goes for the young hero!"

* * *

 

He'd gotten his written exam results back quickly. They said it would take only thirty minutes to grade, and it took exactly that, his entire break, where he was provided with apple slices, crackers and water. Danny would've preferred to have something more than that, but he wasn't certain anything would stay down with the nerves he was having. Fentons weren't good with written tests (except for Jazz, but she was always an exception in everything), they were better with applying what they learned. But he'd done, surprisingly well! 

He flunked the English section of the test, but he figured that would happen. Grammar was the _killer_. Science was his best, with some strange hero-related course  _Heroic Strategy_ coming next. Most of the questions were moral questions, but also common sense.

And then, before he knew it, he was in a city. A mock city, of all things, getting off the shuttle that drove him out to one of the city grounds. Just how big was this school to not have one mock city, but multiple cities? Was a whole country packed in the acreage of this school?

Another hero, someone called Present Mic (a voice quirk, one that reminded Danny of his wail, but much stronger) drove him over and explained everything. There'd be one-point and two-point robots. He had to take them out to rank up points to pass. There was also something known as a zero-pointer, but "Nezu wouldn't do that with only  _one_ person around." Yet Danny didn't believe that one bit, and he's sure that the other hero didn't believe it, earlier.

There was no countdown-- just an airhorn, from Present Mic, right in his ear. Unnecessary with Danny's heightened hearing. But there are no actual countdowns in a real battle,  and Danny felt a wave of determination come over him.

He

_ran._

* * *

 

"God, that kid's fast! What's his quirk again?"

"'Ghost'-- he can walk through walls and disappear."

"Are we sure about that?"

"See, look at the way he just tore those wires from that robot!"

* * *

There was a small mob of robots-- Danny supposed they were one-pointers because of their size. One-pointers were described as being shorter than him, while their stronger two-pointer counterparts were going to be just a bit taller than him-- waiting for him at the entrance. His initial instinct was to charge up an ectoblast, but two problems came with that.

One- he was still in human form. It took a lot more energy to use ectoplasmic-based abilities while still human. 

Two- he was being watched. The security cameras weren't slick, and if he focused, he could hear the frequency from the signal they sent out. He was the only examinee and he was going to be watched. Every. Single. Move.

 _Let's make this fun, then._ It was a challenge, use only two of his abilities out of his arsenal of powers. He grinned, wide and toothy, taking out two two-pointers that had come his way. The rest of the bots were further back, out of his reach. He charged another two, turning his forearms intangible and pushing through, feeling with his buzzing energy the wires inside of the robots that made up their existence, and he pulled. Wrapped his arms around the wires and  _pulled_ , pulling them out and snapping them, disabling the robots.

Another three charged him. "Ah, nuts." Haha, robot pun. But there was no time to be witty in this fight. He had too much to focus on, like the fact that he could only use two of his powers (why couldn't he have given himself flight, too, damn it) and, ouch, a robot just threw itself into him, and he went tumbling onto the ground. He felt a few small pieces of building debris, only big enough to be rocks and nails and the like, scrape against his arm. "Okay, ouch. At least I'm used to technology fighting back."

He pushed himself up and swung his leg through the robot, intangible. The quick kick tangled the wires inside the bot around his leg, and he pushed through, tearing out the wires. The robot stopped, fizzing with electricity. That was the last of the ones he could see. He didn't know what time he had left, so he pushed himself back up and began to jog down the road, searching for more. He wasn't keeping exact track of his points-- he was up to about twenty, then? He didn't know, too many things were happening.

And then he heard it.

 _"Help."_ It was a robotic voice, an AI, no doubt, but it was certainly crying for  _help_ , or something. There was more to the test than what it seemed. He turned the other way from where he heard the robots charging.

* * *

"This kid's got great hearing.  _How_ did he hear that?"

"I don't know. How can  _you_ hear anything with those stupid headphones on your ears all the time?"

"They're  _hollow_ , and they're  _off,_ I'll have you know--"

* * *

The  _help_ was louder now, and Danny could see a small opening in a pile of the broken building. He glanced into the darkness, putting a hand up to shield himself from falling dust. In the hole, he counted three robots of a different design, each a white color, compared to the black robots that he had been previously fighting. The biggest one kept repeating the same cry for help,  stuck on what seemed to be a cartoonish loop.

Danny knew he'd need more points to pass the test, but he couldn't ignore a call for help. Even if it was from robots he was supposed to be  _fighting_. Shrugging, Danny allowed himself to become fully intangible, before passing through the fallen debris and grabbing the smallest of the three robots, which had a bow tied around its small head. Pulling them through was easy, but took longer than it would've to get more points against other robots. Once the three robots were safely out, he turned around, heading back into the fray.

 _"Thank you."_ The biggest robot said, unmoving.

He felt himself flinch at that. All the time that he's been Phantom, how many times has he actually been  _thanked_? Thank God it's grown in the past few months, but when he started out, when he had the entire town turned against him, it was all just taunts, insults,  _threats_. Only the kids thanked him, the teens, who would later be scolded for interacting with "Ectoplasmic scum"--

"Stop it." He slapped his face, getting out of his own thoughts. He had more robots to destroy, anyway.

* * *

"So, Nezu, are you gonna release  _it_?"

"I wasn't going to, but we've got a bit of time left. So let's see how he fares."

* * *

Just as Danny finished off another wave of robots-- how long did ten minutes take? He was sure it was nearing almost fifteen. He was sweating, but he felt invigorated and full of energy. Ectoplasm was bubbling under his skin, electricity in his veins was begging to release itself, but he knew he'd have to hold onto that energy until he got back to the hotel room. Leave the shower on, pretend he was taking a long one, turn into Phantom and go for a flight and 

 _Thunk._ A buzzing sound filled the air, and the city began to shake. He tumbled backwards, landing roughly on his butt, and looked around. He could see, just over the building, the head of what looked like a ginormous robot, like the ones he'd been fighting for what felt like ages now. The only other kind of robot he'd been told about... No.

"That's the zero-pointer?" It's official. The people in this universe are  _insane._ And he's a freaking half-dead teenager who fights ghosts while avoiding his own parents and their attempts to dissect them. "Not worth anything."

But still, curiosity killed the cat, and Danny found himself sprinting to where the robot was. He just wanted to look. 

* * *

"The kid is running right towards it-- is he insane?"

"Nezu, the time's just about up. Do you want to call it now?"

"No, just a few more minutes, please. I want to see what he does."

* * *

The robot's path wasn't clear. A few more white robots, that hadn't been there before, were in the way of the giant treads of the giant robot. They didn't seem too bothered by their oncoming doom, mostly because it was coming at them at a slow five miles per hour. But the white robots were stationary, and couldn't move. So, Danny did what he thought he should do, and he ran towards them. None of them were too heavy to move, and he quickly moved them to the sidewalks, out of the road, out of harm's way. 

"There. That's the last challenge, isn't it?"

Oh, but he jinxed himself. Just as he spoke those words, he noticed there was another white robot. A small one, one that could move, with a familiar  _bow_ wrapped around its small head. It was stuck in a dip in the road. Even though it was just a robot, there was something human about it. Danny had seen people injured and hurt because of ghost fights and the debris that fights caused. If the small robot got trampled, it was another casualty of the fight. But then, Danny thought about the Opportunity Rover that had been on Mars, and he thought about how his heart and core ached so bad when he heard that it was stuck up there and dying that he borrowed the Infi-map to get the rover back to Earth and back to NASA. He thought about his parents' inventions, which while most were weapons, had helped him in fights that he might not have been able to win.

(He thought about the Ghost Portal that killed him but brought him  _life_.)

"Aw, damn it." He ran. He ran as fast as he could-- and probably faster than he should've for a normal person, against the zero-pointer that was speeding up, towards the small robot in its path. Danny beat it there, just barely, and he felt his heart  _thump_ in his chest with adrenaline pumping, how it felt like it was going fast, too fast, but it was probably what a normal human's should be. He wrapped his arms around the robot and pulled, trying to loosen it from the ditch, but it was  _stuck_. So he held on, closed his eyes, and turned both of them intangible.

He shuddered as the zero-pointer went through him-- or, he went through the large robot, it was subject to debate depending on the direction-- and watched as it came to a halt right next to him. 

A large horn rang.

_"Time's up! Yuurei, please make your way back to the city entrance to receive your results!"_

Oh, yeah, that's _his_ _name_.

* * *

"That was unnecessarily reckless for a student to make."

"I think otherwise, Aizawa. Had the robot been a living being, it would have been the right decision to make, especially with young Yuurei's quirk."

"Running into danger like that could also  _kill_ him, if he's not careful. I'm not going to give him points for that." 

"If that is what you believe, Aizawa, then it is. Everyone else, do you have the number of rescue points you want to give to Yuurei?"

* * *

Nezu was waiting for him at the city entrance, as were other heroes. He recognized Present Mic, who had been the announcer for his "test", and Aizawa, who had a strange scarf now wrapped around his neck. He also recognized another thin skeleton of a man, the same one who'd been next to him when he woke up in the infirmary on campus. Two of the heroes were not in any kind of  "uniform", either, but he did notice someone dressed up like a cowboy? _Yeehaw,_ Danny thought.

Recovery Girl was with them and she marched herself right over to Danny the moment they locked eyes.

"How are you feeling, sonny? Any dizziness, headaches, pain? Any bleeding or bruises?"

Danny shook his head. He'd taken very little damage himself in this fight-- and he'd been careful to not damage the city, either. Using just a small percentage of his actual power was quite effective in this scenario. "No, I'm fine."

"Alright. If you do feel anything later, don't hesitate to tell someone, and get some ice or bandages for whatever you might have." Whatever he  _might_ have was definitely not going to be there later, he could feel his healing repairing his body at the same rate it always does. The small scrapes from his fight were now just marks. Recovery Girl gave a thumbs-up to the other group of heroes. 

Nezu spoke first. "While we usually wait a few weeks to release results to students who take the exam, you are definitely an exception, Danny, in more ways than one. I'm pleased to inform you that you've passed the physical exam, as well, with thirty villain points and fifty rescue points!"

"Wait-- rescue points?" He figured the exam would have more than just one later of beat-'em-up robots. What kind of hero school would it be if the test was just against a bunch of robots? "From the white robots?"

Nezu nodded. "Rescue points are usually given students who perform heroic deeds in the exam, and the numbers are chosen by a panel of onlooking judges--" Nezu turned, motioning to the group of heroes behind him as he spoke. "-- and are added onto the student's total score. While in the actual exam, the students are with other people, in your case we had to substitute things with, well, more robots. But you caught on quite quickly." Nezu laughed. 

Danny glanced back again, at the panel. Aizawa was glaring at him. He looked away, back at Nezu.

"It is an honor to welcome you to U.A., Danny!" Nezu smiled, and this time, it wasn't a devious one. A genuine one. The group of heroes behind him clapped. 

Oh, hey, he got in-- Danny took a big sigh of relief. He knew that the school was going to be hard, and with the fact he had to  _limit_ himself through it by using only two of his powers, it was going to be harder. But... It was better than people thinking that he's some sort of villain,  _freak, monster, thing, it,_ because of what he is. It was better than being stuck in some kind of foster system, with some kind of host family going to a normal high school where he wouldn't be around people who he could "use" (see: stalk) to find a way home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Catch me realizing at three am that _Yuurei_ , Danny's fake last name, not only means ghost, but _sounds like Yuuei,_ which is the phonetic pronunciation of U.A., making his fake last name not only a terrible hint at his quirk but also a pun.
> 
>    
> Hi, sorry for not updating in a few weeks! I mentioned it in [_ACHROMATIC_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18284441/chapters/43274081), but I was out of the country (America, land of the free and of the Republican undermining of the constitution our country was founded on) on a lil' vacation. A lil' holiday. I'm back home (as of May 31st) and updates will be a bit more often-- as in, I don't know how often but I promise it won't be like, a whole month, lol. 😂
> 
> Also, I wrote this entire chapter and completely forgot the existence of 3-pointers. So they're not here because it's only just Danny. Nezu figured that with his quirk, Danny could avoid the 0P easily.


	4. narcissus pseudonarcissus

He'd be stuck in the same hotel room for the next week, but he'd been given more clothes to wear (and the protection program he was in provided a credit card he could use to purchase clothes, necessities, and food) and more importantly, more uniforms. He'd worn just the button-up and pants paired with his red, beat-up converse for the written exam, but now he had a full uniform. Which meant he had to learn how to tie a tie, but that was a problem for later he'd deal with.

After filling out a few more papers, Danny was mostly set for starting the following Monday. He was given his class schedule and even a copy of the student's roster, and where his seat would be. Class 1-A had an expulsion on the first day (already? Ouch), and there was an empty seat that now belonged to him.

He glanced through the list, wondering who was in the class. 

 _Midoriya Izuku. There's one face, at least._ He looked at the top of the paper, to see who his teacher was.  _Aizawa Shota._ Make it two familiar faces, but Danny was pretty sure that Aizawa didn't like him.

He groaned, falling back onto the bed. The sun had set, and Danny was itching to get out of the hotel room. Not too far, not gone completely, maybe just... 

"Up," Danny said to himself, pushing himself off the bed and towards the bathroom. He opened the door and turned on the shower, allowing it to steam up the room. It felt nice, but it wasn't the familiar cold electricity he hadn't felt in a long time, so he concentrated and felt his body change. His core hummed in content, and he turned intangible and shot  _up, up, up_ , through the last two floors of the hotel-- luckily those two rooms were empty, and a hallway-- and into the night sky.

The stars were different in this universe. How they were arranged, the stories they told, the constellations, were familiar. Mostly based on Greek mythology, but different tales, different stories. He didn't know them all, but he wanted to know. It was a new map, a different world. _Literally_ a different world. Floating over the hotel, he glanced down to see the city below him. There was a beach nearby, the ocean sparkling in the crescent moonlight. Tall buildings framed the rest of the town, with old Japanese architecture sandwiched between. Behind him was U.A., a sight he'd grown to know over the past few days. It was  _huge_ , and Danny flew up higher, to get a small little peek at the school campus without drifting too far from the hotel. 

Even from higher in the troposphere, he couldn't see the entirety of the school. Whatever. He allowed himself to lazily float in the sky, focusing on the stars for just a few more minutes. He'd do this more and more, when he found a host family and didn't have to worry about police officers existing in the rooms next to him, providing him protection. Maybe he'd journey beyond, but he didn't want Phantom to get too familiar with the public eye. For now.

"Once a hero, always a hero, _unfortunately_."Danny said, falling back down to the hotel's roof. He shouldn't be using too much water. It's probably bad for the environment.

* * *

Sunday was for shopping, though it was really the most awkward thing he's ever done. He was taken to a nearby shopping mall to pick up some necessities, especially casual clothes. The officers stood one outside the store and one inside the store, a distance from Danny, making sure he was okay.

Whatever caught Danny's eyes was thrown into a bag and bought without trying anything on. Toothbrush, toothpaste, another box of donuts-- done, done, and  _done_ , Danny was set for the next few days cooped up in a hotel room. He was more nervous about Monday, which reared its ugly head faster than anyone was expecting.

* * *

He has an official cover story to recite to the class, one he and Nezu sat down to do after the exam. His story?

He was a transfer student, an exchange student, from America. Papers got mixed up in his transition from America to Japan, and he was pretty much stuck in a grey limbo for the first few days, preventing him from coming to class. Luckily "copies" of his papers made their way to the offices of U.A. over the weekend. He wasn't to explicitly blame either country on the record, and was told to say that he couldn't say much about it.  

"Only a few people know of your real situation." Aizawa-- his  _new homeroom teacher_ \-- explained, leading him through the hallway. It was empty, most students were in homeroom for the beginning of the day. "Your teachers, Nezu, and the police force. Other heroes can access it, if the problem arises, and it better not. It's a cover story, so don't be a problem child and spill everything to anyone, alright?"

"Of course." Danny  _knew_ how to keep secrets. He would've winked to Aizawa, but he felt like Aizawa wasn't a winker.

"The design you submitted to the Support department will be available at the end of the day. Unfortunately, that means you will participate in the Foundational Heroics class today in just the P.E. uniform." He said, taking a sharp turn down the hall. "I also would like you to stay after class this afternoon."

Ah, shit, he's  _already in trouble,_ and he hasn't even stepped foot in his classroom already? "Sure." It's not like he had anything to do, really. He'd just be going back to the hotel and doing homework, probably sneaking off as Phantom again during the night and exploring nearby Musutafu, the town everything was situated in. 

They stopped at a large door. Danny was pretty sure that it was built for the likes of  _Pariah Dark,_ because it towered over him. He thought the ceiling was pretty high up. Maybe there are some tall students at this school. Or whoever built the place was being as accommodating as possible?

"Ready?"

"I--"

Given no chance to respond, Aizawa opens the door. Whatever chatter was floating through the classroom came to an abrupt stop, and he recognized the squeal of chairs moving back into their places. He stood in the doorway, fully aware of all the eyes staring at him, as Aizawa stepped up to the desk in front of the classroom. 

"Twenty seconds to quiet down. You really need to work at that."

Danny felt like he was going to start missing Mr. Lancer.

"I have an announcement to make before classes begin. As you may notice, we are going to have a new student joining us today."

"Already?"

"So soon?"

"That was fast!"

He remembered that a student had been expelled from the class already. Some sort of combination of failing a test on the first day and sexual harassment, Danny didn't get much information after pestering Nezu about it. What's in the past will stay the past, he supposed. He didn't want to know, anyway. 

"Quiet down." Aizawa grumbled. "We were originally meant to have him on the first day, but there was a mess in customs that prevented that." He looked over at Danny. "Introduce yourself. You know where your seat is."

Aizawa was definitely curt about  _everything_. Or maybe he didn't want to waste time on trivial things. Taking a deep breath, Danny nodded, walking closer to the center of the room. The entire class was silent, staring at him, and he got quite a good look at a few students. He recognized a green mess of hair as Midoriya Izuku, he noticed there was a  _pink-skinned girl,_ a boy with a bird head, and many other interesting characters in this class. He knew what he was going to say, he rehearsed it in the mirror about thirteen times that very morning.

"Hello! My name is Yuurei Danny, but just Danny is fine. I'm from America, and I'm glad to finally be here after the customs mess. I hope this year goes... well!" He hesitated at the end. He didn't want to be here, but it was better than the alternatives. 

 _And hey,_ he thought sardonically,  _maybe I'll actually LEARN something, too._

Hands immediately went up into the air, and he glanced back at Aizawa, who merely shrugged in response. "Only three, then sit down so we can start." Danny nodded, turning around and looking at his class.

His  _class_ \-- he felt a sharp sting in his heart, thinking of Casper High's familiar purple and black colors, the students he'd known for almost an entire year, and there was some kind of hole in his heart. Did he miss his school? Did he miss being pushed around by the bullies (so no one else would have to), the teachers who looked at him with concern or disgust, the terrible lunch the cafeteria provided? Was he homesick? 

... _Yes._

"What's your quirk?" The pink-skinned girl asked as soon as Danny pointed at her to  _ask._

 _Good question,_ he thought. "It's, uh, it's called 'Ghost'. I can do this." He turned his forearm invisible. "And it can go through stuff."

"Are you related to Hagakure?" The pink-skinned girl shouted, before Danny could answer someone else's question. Everyone turned to... Well, there was an  _invisible girl_ in this class, too. Danny hadn't even noticed her because she was just  _floating clothes_ \-- or, well, she wasn't standing out much like the pink-skinned girl, the guy with what looked like multiple arms, and Danny was just  _used_ to all this weirdness, now. 

The invisible girl giggled, and Danny shrugged, a smirk forming. He left it at that. With a grunt from behind him, Danny felt his face flush. That was enough of the questions, he supposed, and he nervously and quietly made his way to where his seat was. Midoriya gave a small smile as he passed.

_Maybe this won't be that bad after all._

* * *

Danny was expecting his last thought before class began to contradict itself after it was over. It was the cycle that he lived in, one of the universes constantly laughing at him when he ever tried to do anything, the way it had always been, since even before the accident. Something about clumsy, tiny, Danny Fenton made the universe burst into laughter, especially whenever he was suffering.

Yet, he found himself okay after class. In fact, he felt pretty good about it. He understood his Mathematics class (this universe was  _behind_ in his own lessons, imagine the luck that Danny had just stumbled upon) and actually learned stuff in his history class. English and Literature were both boring, but he couldn't get away with a snooze in English like he usually does because of the teacher-- Present Mic, was it-- and his  _loud voice_. Danny thought his  _Ghostly Wail was bad_ ,  but this was much more destruction on a controllable level.

Lunch came.

Danny wanted to throw himself out of a window. The moment the teacher dismissed them and left the room, he was swarmed. Not every single classmate got up to talk to him, but there was enough of them that he found himself in the middle of a crowd of people asking questions.

"You're from America? What's it like?"

"It's really different-" He tried to respond to all of them.

"Yuurei, your Japanese is really good! Say something in English!"

"Uh, is it? And, um,  _Hello?_ " He didn't understand  _how_ he knew Japanese well despite never taking a class in it at home, but at this point, Danny was too afraid to ask the universe about it.

"What school did you come from? What was it like?"

"Well, it was, normal, I guess--"

 _"ENOUGH!"_ A loud voice rang out from the crowd, and all the students froze. One of the taller students, a boy with boxy glasses and blue hair, caught everyone's attention immediately. "Can you not see that you have pushed our new classmate into a corner? Is this what a foreigner ought to think of when they think of U.A.?" In response, the crowd glanced at each other. The class, from what Danny could tell, was still getting used to coexisting together with clashing personalities. Iida cleared his throat. "And we ought to be heading off to lunch! Afterwards, we have our first Foundational Heroics class and it is imperative we get enough nutrition to support whatever activity we might be doing in the class."

"I-Iida's right!" Danny heard Midoriya say, who was also caught up in the crowd, not by choice. His fault for being in the seat in front of Danny. His eyes were wide, probably wider than Danny's own. "P-Plus, Yuurei will be here with all of us for the rest of the year, so we'll get to know him along with everyone else!"

A few of the kids mumbled to each other, before the crowd shrugged and dispersed, ready to get to lunch. A few stayed back-- Midoriya, the Iida kid, and a girl with bright, rosy cheeks who was literally  _g_ _lowing_ with positivity, and Danny couldn't tell if it was her quirk or not.

Iida took a deep breath, before speaking again, bowing towards him. Danny was worried that he was going to slam his forehead on the desk, but either there was no sound or Iida didn't. "Again, my deepest apologies on behalf of our classmates, Yuurei."

Danny waved it off; what other situations had he been in like that? Swarmed by news reporters and paparazzi in Amity Park, asking question after question  _after question_. He never stayed around long enough to deal with them, but he felt like it helped his reputation a bit when he could, so he did. He wasn't expecting to find it _here_ , of all places. "I'm okay. And please, call me Danny."

He stood up straight-- Iida reminded Danny of some kind of robot (not Skulker), at least with his movements. "O-Of course, Yu-- _Danny_." Danny  _knew_  that Japanese people addressed others by the last name except if they were really close, but hearing "Yuurei" directed at him all the time was going to get grating. At least he hoped his fellow students would understand. "My name is Iida Tenya, it is a pleasure to meet you."

"I'm Uraraka Ochako!" The girl introduced herself. "It's so cool that you're here! Yuurei sounds a lot like U.A., doesn't it?"

Oh.  _Oh._ He hadn't realized. What was with the universe and puns, too? Danny was pretty sure his last name was a common one, but if it's just the name of the school...  _oh, we found you on the school, let's just name you after it and call it a day._ Then again, Danny chose  _Phantom_ for his ghost form because it was close to _Fenton,_ if he ever stumbled over them it wouldn't be noticeable. And he couldn't resist the pun.  

(He was worried his parents would figure out the pun. They haven't, as far as he knew.)

Danny laughed. "Huh, What a coincidence." 

"We should probably get to lunch, too. Do you want to sit with us, Yu-- Danny?" Midoriya asked.

"Sure."

* * *

Lunch went by quickly. Which was a  _shame_ , because Danny really enjoyed the food from the cafeteria, for once.  For one thing, everything in the cafeteria was clean, the tables glimmered in the fluorescent lights above and it didn't reek of days-old food. And even though the food was all Japanese, it tasted amazing. 

He needed to steal the head chef of this school, take them back to Casper High. Not permanently, just to teach the cafeteria workers how to cook. And the Lunch Lady, too, but her food was more palatable than what they were fed in school.

("Is he... crying?" Midoriya asked, watching Danny stare at his food. Uraraka shrugged.)

And then, what everyone was waiting for... Foundational Heroics. Taught by a hero he hadn't met, yet--  _All Might._ The number-one hero in Japan. The Symbol of Peace. He'd heard chatter from his classmates during lunch, after lunch, and in the classroom while waiting for class about how cool it was they were going to get taught by the "number-one pro hero" in Japan. Personally, Danny couldn't care less. He hadn't been in this world for even a _week_ , yet. He didn't know anything about any of the pro-heroes except the stuff he was supposed to know for his entrance exam and what general information he'd found online. 

Even though Danny decided it was a good idea to go to a hero school to find his way home, he didn't think much of the consequences. Especially limiting himself to only two of his abilities. _Why didn't I at least give myself flight, too?  What if something goes wrong and I end up having to transform, or do something that isn't human, to protect someone? What are the odds of that? If this is some anime, then who's the main character?_  Sam would often joke that Danny's last brain cell was blasted to pieces when he first had the accident, and Danny definitely agreed with her.

His thoughts wouldn't have much more time to ruminate, because a voice from the door called out, "I am..." and a large man in a typical superhero attire leaned in dramatically. " _...coming through the door like a normal person!"_

There was something familiar about the man's voice. Danny couldn't exactly tell where he had heard it before, but a familiarity rung out in his head and it was going to bother him. This was definitely All Might, though the outfit he wore wasn't one that Danny had seen before. An old one, perhaps? Did heroes go through rebrands, redesigns, new outfits? Was Danny going to have to think of something new for Phantom? 

The students around him were in awe. 

"So cool!"

"Wow, he really is a teacher here!"

"Isn't that his silver-age costume?"

All Might marched to the front.  _Literally_ , marched. If Danny wasn't in Japan right now, he would definitely think All Might was an American. He wears the country colors, heck, even his name is in English (how Danny can tell the difference between Japanese and English, he didn't quite know, yet). He stopped at the front, taking the basic superhero, fists-on-your-hips, chest-out pose, a large smile shining on his face. "As you all know, I teach Foundational Heroic Studies. It is the subject where you train in different ways to learn the basics of being a hero! Today's exercise is..." He held out a card, dramatically, which read  _Battle_ on it. "Combat training!"

There were mixed reactions through the room. Danny could see, even from behind, that Midoriya seemed upset about the ordeal, but other students seemed ecstatic. And hey, maybe Danny could use more training, most of what he knew was street fighting, trying to survive against ghosts who want to completely kill you, hurt your town, or get your pelt on their walls. Maybe having some honest fighting training (aside from what his mom tried to teach him) will do him good. 

"And to go with that... are  _these!_ " All Might pulled a remote out from his pocket, and pressed the button dramatically. Danny wouldn't be surprised if his guy's college major was actually  _theatre_ and not  _Heroics._ Once the button was pressed, different cases, numbered 1-19, shot out from the wall. "Based on what designs you had sent in after your acceptance, your costumes are here!"

 _Costumes._ Danny had just finished his design last night, and he was told multiple times it would be ready by the end of the week. He'd just have to wear his gym clothes, then. Which was fine. 

"After you change, head down to Ground Beta!"

"Yes, sir!" The class responded in a cacophony of yells.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, finally, Plot™ is coming.
> 
> In reference to the Casper High school colors-- I saw a tumblr post where the colors were actually black and purple, and I feel like that matches the aesthetic of Amity Park _to a teeeeee_ so I kinda... "borrowed" that headcanon. I'll link it when I can find it because it's 10/10.
> 
> Also, thank you all SO MUCH for the comments and kudos and stuff that you've been sending this way. Honestly didn't expect this fanfic to get so much love, is this some kind of niche fanfiction that people are craving? I wanna respond to every single comment on here ~~I just keep forgetting dfsdfad~~ but I love all of you guys so much :')
> 
> Special birthday update because of June 9th, I'm finally _Jared, 19, can't read_.
> 
> Shamelessly pluging my tumblr, [@cosmonaughtt](https://cosmonaughtt.tumblr.com/)! Idk, go follow me on there, scream at me, stuff like that. It's mostly ~aesthetic~ posts but there are various fandoms mixed into it, too.


	5. update (yes its what u think it is, sorry)

going on a temporary hiatus; i'm sorry guys. i've just lost interest in the story. it'll probably come back to me in like 2-3 months, tbh 

**Author's Note:**

> Most of the Danny Phantom lore comes from my own rewrite/au of the story, which the basics can be seen [here](https://wearebutblackholes.tumblr.com/post/184355866395/how-id-rewrite-danny-phantom#notes). 
> 
> To summarize;
> 
> 1\. Ghosts are dead.  
> 2\. Danny doesn't have an ice core, but an electricity core (cores are related to a ghost's death)  
> 3\. Danny uses the name Phantom, not Danny Phantom. It's still a terrible pun of _Fenton_ but 100x less obvious  
> 4\. Danny's ghost form is more ghost-like. His face can't be recognized well unless you really know him or look close enough. H is skin is blue, glowing green freckles, all sorts of fanon-delicious stuff.  
> 5\. Ghost speak is a thing. It's probably a mixture of all the dead languages, mostly Esperanto and Latin. Ha-ha, dead languages.


End file.
